Best of The Poached Egg

02/14/2015

Christianity is not a code for living or a philosophy of religion; rather, it is rooted in real events of history. The reason it’s scandalous is because it ties up the truth of Christianity with the truth of those historical facts. This means that if these historical events are shown to be fraudulent or fictional, then the whole basis of Christianity is removed. To put it as simply as possible: the truth or falsity of Christianity stands or falls with individual events within history.—William Lane Craig (from, The Challenge of History)

Such claims as "philosophy is dead" and "Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge" are highly problematic. For one thing both claims are themselves not scientific; there is no test that fits the scientific model one may perform and come up with those statements. No, saying "philosophy is dead" is making a philosophical statement itself; it's doing philosophy! The claim becomes self-refuting and can be dismissed.—Lenny Esposito (from, Scientism rejects philosophy as a form of knowledge)

What’s really ironic and sad is that your average militant atheist or hard-core skeptic of Christianity is more familiar with Christian apologetics than the average Christian. We are long past due for a paradigm shift in realizing the need for training in apologetics and critical thinking skills among Christians. I want encourage and to be a part of those who are striving to affect that change—I want to see such an outcry in the church for this change that it becomes a flood that sweeps away all remaining opposition and an army of well-equipped evangelists and disciple making disciples marches out to engage contemporary culture in a way that hasn’t been seen since the first century.—Greg West

Let's set the record straight. Faith is not the opposite of reason. The opposite of faith is unbelief. And reason is not the opposite of faith. The opposite of reason is irrationality. Do some Christians have irrational faith? Sure. Do some skeptics have unreasonable unbelief? You bet. It works both ways.—Greg Koukl (from, Is God Just a Human Invention?)

I really believe we’re on the cusp of a golden era in Christian apologetics. We’re living in very exciting times. The water has been stirred by atheists, anti-theists and agnostics, and there’s an atmosphere of skepticism because of it. To me, that just spells opportunity; it means people are thinking about these issues, and they’re willing to listen and engage and discuss these topics. Apologetics has always been the handmaiden of evangelism. It’s a tool that’s used in the evangelistic process. It’s always about helping people get past those spiritual sticking points that are holding them up in their spiritual journeys.—Lee Strobel (from, What's Trending in Apologetics Today?)

The skeptic who believes the Bible’s human authors manufactured their God out of psychological need has not read the Scriptures carefully. —Charles Colson(from, God and Government)

I suspect that most of the individuals who have religious faith are content with blind faith. They feel no obligation to understand what they believe. They may even wish not to have their beliefs disturbed by thought. But if God in whom they believe created them with intellectual and rational powers, that imposes upon them the duty to try to understand the creed of their religion. Not to do so is to verge on superstition. —Mortimer J. Adler

Let us equip our churches…our leadership teams…our children…and our small groups! Let us stop the candy-coated and shallow presentations of the gospel. We do a grave disservice to Christ and the Scriptures whenever we fail to ask people to think. Men are dying, flailing away in a sea of confusion and post-modern thought. Let us throw them the only life raft available–the sound and clear message of Christ crucified, risen and coming back. Let us answer the questions and objections modern man wrestles with head-on. Let us look to Christ in prayer an offer the hope of the gospel with sensitivity, rational warrant, honesty and humility.—Terry Ivy (from, Apologetics – The Bridge That Holds)

Pick a path, any path–it will take you to God. Trust me: you will stand before Him one day. You will meet your Maker. You will see the face of Christ. There are many ways up the mountain, but only one will result in life instead of destruction… All paths lead to God, but only one path will present you before God without fault and with great joy.—Kevin DeYoung(from, All Paths Lead to God)

Christians can say with confidence that while some atheists have the attitude, “There is no God, and I hate him,” Christ had the attitude, “There are atheists, and I love them. In fact, I died for them.”—Frank Turek (from, Stealing from God)

In a world without a divine lawgiver, there can be no objective right and wrong, only our culturally and personally relative, subjective judgments. This means that it is impossible to condemn war, oppression, or crime as evil. Nor can one praise brotherhood, equality, and love as good. For in a universe without God, good and evil do not exist—there is only the bare valueless fact of existence, and there is no one to say that you are right and I am wrong.—William Lane Craig (from, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics)

When Christians avoid principled conflict on things that matter because of fear of disunity and division, they cripple the church in three ways. First, Scripture commands that we guard the truth within our ranks; where arguments are few, error abounds. Second, believers are denied the opportunity to learn how to argue among themselves in a fair, reasonable, and gracious way. Third, the outcome for fight-phobic churches is not genuine oneness, but a contrived unanimity, a shallow and artificial peace.—Greg Koukl (from, Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions)

12/19/2014

Greg’s Note: A very special thanks to everyone who has taken advantage of our discount Kindle deals and/or have purchased other products via our Amazon links over this past year. Thanks to you, we’ve raised nearly $3,000 in sales commissions which go towards helping support Ratio Christi and The Poached Egg.

Below you’ll find our top 25 best-selling deals of 2014. Mouse-over thumbnails for prices and click through for ordering details. No Kindle is needed to take advantage of these deals as you can download the free Kindle app for your computer or portable smart devices by clicking on the banner.

04/17/2014

Apologist Spotlight: Some Resources for Easter From Randy Everest

Greg’s Note:We’ve posted more than a few articles by tent-maker apologist and blogger, Randy Everest. Here is a compilation of resurrection related articles on his blog that we highly recommend. We appreciate all of Randy’s hard work in the apologetics community and awe also appreciate that he was one of a handful of bloggers who, in our earlier days, gave The Poached Egg a rousing recommendation on his blog (you can read that post here). While you’re checking out or bookmarking the posts below, be sure to stop by his Possible World’s blog Facebook page (here) and give it a ‘like’. Keep up the great work, Randy!

Resurrection Sunday is upon us this week, otherwise more commonly known as Easter. This Easter, take some time to read up on some of the reasons we have for thinking that Jesus of Nazareth was really raised from the dead by God.

"The Empty Tomb Revisited" - This post discusses reasons we have for thinking that the tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ was really found empty by a group of his female followers on the morning of the first day of the week.

"Barabbas and Jesus" - Why would people want Barabbas over Jesus? What were they thinking? This post explores this tragic part of the story.

"The Crowd" - Have you ever heard someone say that the same crowd who hailed Jesus in his coming into Jerusalem would call for his crucifixion seven days later? That's probably not true, and we'll see why in this post!

"Unlikely Story of the Women" - Do we have contradictory accounts of the discovery of Jesus by a group of his women followers? Are there any plausible answers?

"Significance of the Resurrection" - What does it all mean? The Resurrection is, in fact, the most important event in all of human history. Every Christian must understand this.

Ratio Christi’s The Poached Egg Apologetics and Christian Worldview Network is a nonprofit ministry in need of your financial and prayerful support to keep us going and growing. Please join our support team withan ongoing monthly or a special gift here.

04/05/2014

14 Quotes from Women in Apologetics

It is a hard thing to look at the truth when it runs contrary to what you’ve always believed. The experience is like pulling back the curtains in a dimly lit room and looking out the window to see what’s really outside. When your eyes are used to artificial light, the bright sunlight is almost blinding; your eyes may sting and even water at the brightness, and the temptation is to turn away to the more comfortable dimness. But consider: the electricity that powers artificial light is produced by fossil fuel, made from plants that long ago took in the light of the sun—or from windmills, powered by air currents moved by the sun’s heat—or from solar panels, absorbing the sun’s rays. We may think we are in control of the light when we can turn it on or off by a flick of a switch—but ultimately that tame, comfortable indoor light has its source in the wild heart of the sun. Just so with the truth. Whatever we know of what is right and good and true comes from God, the Author of all Truth—whether we know it or not. But His truth is so much greater than our little partial glimpses of the truth that it can be blinding.—Dr. Holly Ordway(from, Not God's Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith)

The difficulty was not a lack of opportunity to hear about God. The problem lay deeper: in my very concept of what faith was. I thought faith was by definition irrational, that it meant believing some assertion to be true for no reason. It had never occurred to me that there could be a path to faith through reason, that there were arguments for the existence of God, and evidence for the claims of Christianity. I thought you had to “just have faith”—and the very idea of faith baffled and horrified me. – Holly Ordway(from, Not God's Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith)

The only way teens become truly “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks” (1 Pet. 3:15) is by wrestling personally with the questions. Ironically, those who have never grappled with diverse worldviews are actually the most likely to be swept away by them. As G. K. Chesterton wrote, ideas can be dangerous — but they are far more dangerous to the person who has never studied them…we should always couch discussions of Christianity in the language of reasons and evidence. We should be giving apologetics from the pulpit and in the Sunday school classroom. Every course in a Christian school should be an opportunity to show that a biblical perspective does a better job than any secular theory of accounting for the facts in that field, whether psychology, biology, government, or business. Apologetics should be naturally woven in to all our discourse.—Nancy Pearcey(from an Interview with Nancy Pearcey)

Instead of addressing teens’ questions, most church youth groups focus on fun and food. The goal seems to be to create emotional attachment using loud music, silly skits, slapstick games -- and pizza. But the force of sheer emotional experience will not equip teens to address the ideas they will encounter when they leave home and face the world on their own. A study in Britain found that non-religious parents have a near 100 percent chance of passing on their views to their children, whereas religious parents have only about a 50/50 chance of passing on their views. Clearly, teaching young people to engage critically with secular worldviews is no longer an option. It is a necessary survival skill.—Nancy Pearcey

Many people operate as though the definition of faith were, Don’t ask questions, just believe. They quote Jesus himself, who taught his followers to have the faith of a child (Mark 10:15). But I once heard Francis Schaeffer respond by saying, “Don’t you realize how many questions children ask?”—Nancy Pearcey

To be effective in equipping young people and professionals to face the challenges of a highly educated secular society, the church needs to redefine the mission of pastors and youth leaders to include training in apologetics and worldview.…Pastors must once again provide intellectual leadership for their congregations, teaching apologetics from the pulpit. Every time a minister introduces a biblical teaching, he should also instruct the congregation in ways to defend it against the major objections they are likely to encounter. A religion that avoids the intellectual task and retreats to the therapeutic realm of personal relationships and feelings will not survive in today’s spiritual battlefield. —Nancy Pearcey

The first step in conforming our intellect to God's truth is to die to our vanity, pride, and craving for respect from colleagues and the public. We must let go of the worldly motivations that drive us, praying to be motivated solely by a genuine desire to submit our minds to God's Word - and then to use that knowledge in service to others.― Nancy Pearcey

Knowing that there is an onslaught of error and lies bombarding our young people every day, it becomes ever more important to clearly proclaim and teach the truth. Churches need to equip members not entertain them. If your students who have grown up in church know more about how to play underground church or “Gun, Man, Gorilla” than they do about Christ or how to answer objections to Christianity, then you have a problem. —Candi Finch(From her essay, Why Should You Care About Katy Perry’s Approach to Religion?)

In a fallen world, if you demand perfection or nothing, you will always get nothing.- Edith Schaeffer

I plunged headlong into apologetics, devouring debates and books from many perspectives. I read the Qur’an and Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion. I went through The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible and looked up Christian rebuttals to apparent contradictions. But nothing compared to the rich tradition of Christian intellect. I’d argued with my peers, but I’d never investigated the works of the masters: Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Pascal, and Lewis. When I finally did, the only reasonable course of action was to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.- Jordan Monge (from, The Atheist's Dilemma)

Why do you balk at the doctrine of the Trinity - God the three in One - yet meekly acquiesce when Einstein tells you E=mc2? What makes you suppose that the expression "God ordains" is narrow and bigoted, while your own expression, "Science demands" is taken as an objective statement of fact? You would be ashamed to know as little about internal combustion as you know about Christian beliefs. I admit, you can practice Christianity without knowing much theology, just as you can drive a car without knowing much about internal combustion. But when something breaks down in the car, you go humbly to the man who understands the works; whereas if something goes wrong with religion, you merely throw the works away and tell the theologian he is a liar.– Dorothy Sayers

Those who oppose apologetics do so because they fear that by teaching people “why” they believe, they will lose sight of the “Who”. This is a rational fear to have, as there are definitely those out there who have lost sight of the reason for doing apologetics in the first place. However, just because there are people misrepresenting the point of apologetics, it doesn’t mean you should throw out the baby with the bathwater. It does not mean you can ignore the hard questions your youth may have and substitute it with worship services and water balloon fights every week because that is easier and less controversial. Nancy [Pearcey] writes, “There’s nothing wrong with good clean fun. But the force of sheer emotional experience will not equip teens to address the ideas they will encounter when they leave home and face the world on their own. Young people whose faith is mostly emotional are likely to retain it only as long as it is making them happy. As soon as a difficult crisis comes along, it will evaporate.” This is true across the board, not just with youth, but with mom and dad as well. – Sarah Ankenman(President of The International Society of Women in Apologetics, from her blog essay, Apol@&#%!)

Whenever I talk with fellow Christians about the necessity of an intellectually responsible faith, I often receive a response that is a mixture of agreement and anxiety. Most Christians would agree that our belief system should not look like the secular caricature–a blind leap past the cliff edge of rationality. However, in some important respects, many believers are at a loss for how to improve upon loving God with their minds. The vast number of books, journals, articles, video lectures, online courses, and formal degree programs overwhelms them, and sadly, many never begin at all, choosing instead to continue through life with an intellectually shallow, emotions-driven faith. Others do just enough studying to make them dangerous.– Melissa Cain Travis (from, Intellectually Responsible Christianity)

Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself. ― Madeleine L'Engle

Ratio Christi’s The Poached Egg Apologetics and Christian Worldview Network is a nonprofit ministry in need of your financial and prayerful support to keep us going and growing. Please join our support team withan ongoing monthly or a special gift here.

You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. John 18:37

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For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

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For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 2 Peter 1:16